January 31, 2012

Ernest J. Bohn Political Memorabilia

Ernest John Bohn was always especially proud of two of his achievements: he wrote and obtained passage of the Ohio Public Housing Act, the first in the nation; and he was the first director of the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA), the first housing authority organized in the United States. He was often referred to as "the father of public housing," a distinction based not only on his work in Cleveland and in Ohio, but also on his prominence on the national scene, his lobbying efforts, especially for the 1937 U.S. Housing Act, and his involvement in every housing advocacy group of consequence. At his retirement in 1968, he could claim credit for presiding over the building of 10,684 units of "decent, safe and sanitary housing...for low income and elderly families" and for planning for 1,885 more. He was clearly and proudly dedicated to the cause of housing.

Born in Sannicolau Mare, Romania, on May 12, 1901, Bohn immigrated to America with his widowed father in 1911. In 1919 he graduated from East Tech High School in Cleveland and went on to graduate from Adelbert College of Western Reserve University (WRU) in 1924 and the WRU Law School in 1926. He practiced law in Cleveland from 1926 to 1938.

Before he found his life's work in the housing problems which confronted Cleveland in the great depression, Bohn was active in Cleveland and Ohio politics as a highly visible and often quoted Republican Party organizer and candidate. Among his papers is his usher’s pin and ribbon for the republican national convention, held in Cleveland in 1924. Early in his career he was elected to a term in the Ohio House of Representatives [1928], and from 1930 to 1940 he was elected to successive terms on the Cleveland City Council.

Bohn never lost sight of his goal to further the cause of public housing and though he remained devoted to the Republican Party he accepted the reality of politics which dictated that he work with politicians and government officials of all stripes in order to succeed.

As the Special Collections Research Center nears completion of an updated guide to The Ernest J. Bohn Housing and Planning Library we offer images of selected political memorabilia from the collection.

January 03, 2012

2011 Views in Review

As the calendar page turns from 2011 to 2012 we would like to share more updates and interesting developments related to a few of last year’s topics:

Our August post on the survey of Special Collections World War I resources contained a reference to the Thomas Slavin gift of 50 images taken by commercial photographers Underwood & Underwood for distribution to news-bureaus during that era. The gift, noted then as "in process" has recently been added to Digital Case as The Underwood & Underwood. WWI Photographs.

"Disabled Heroes Being Taught New Trades." circa 1919 From the Underwood & Underwood Collection of World War I Photographs. Gift of Thomas Slavin

When we wrote about the collections in the Case Archive of Contemporary Science and Technology in September we could not foresee the events that would unfold bringing staff members into closer connection with History of Science and Technology groups meeting in Cleveland last fall. An invitation extended by NASA Chief Archivist Jane Odom presented an opportunity to archivists Helen Conger {University Archives) and Nora Blackman (Special Collections) to speak at the NASA Annual History Meeting on November 1st at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on our holdings related to T. Keith Glennan, President of CIT (1947-1966) and first NASA Administrator (1958-1961), and the Case Archive.